September 20,1990 xxxxxxxxxxxx Oakland California xxxxx Dear David Brain: Your letter, expedited by the full resources of our admirable post office, reached me yesterday. Thank you for the compliments: I can only say that I try my best. Nowadays I find that time prevents me from conducting any lucid correspondence, or even answering many letters; also my subconscious (so I suspect) is notifying me that whatever energy for literary composition yet remaining to me had best be directed to earning a living, since this energy, sadly enough, is not illimitable nor - even more dampening - is by no means perpetual. Your letter however falls into a different category, for at least two reasons. First, the ancestral seat of the Vance family is in Wigtownshire, some eighty miles or so south of Fairlie, in Ayrshire. The family seems quite old. In 1066 the three deVaux brothers arrived with William and subsequently settled in Yorkshire, this line becoming extinct in the sixteenth century. However a cadet branch had moved north into Wigtownshire - the exact place I forget. The family seat burned to the ground in 1945 and - so I understand - is in the process of being rebuilt. Secondly, I am charmed to hear of your boat, and the pleasure you take in cruising. It is one of my own enthusiasms, and in fact until recently my son and I owned a 45 foot ketch, full keel, very strong, designed by Huntingford of Vancouver in British Columbia. Alas! I lost about half of my eyesight (glaucoma); John became a mechanical engineer and HINANO was sold. John is now employed by a firm specialising in the construction of small deep-water submarines. My nephew, incidentally, with his wife, has circumnavigated once in a boat you and I would consider quite unsuitable: the Cal 2-27 - a 27 foot sloop, fin and spade rudder. They wanted to buy up to something a bit larger but were daunted by prices and so decided it was better to sail in whatever they had rather than not sail in something they did not have, and are leaving for another go in a month. I have always imagined that the west coast of Scotland would be a wonderful place to cruise, if the weather permitted. I have just finished Cadwal II: Ecce and Old Earth. First in the set was Cadwal I: Araminta Station, which has been on the stands for a year or two now. I am now working on outline to Cadwal III, as yet unititled. Despite bad eyesight, now deplorable after eye surgery, we still hope to revisit Europe. Our present plans focus upon Eastern Europe, but one of my unfulfilled ambitions is to drive to the tip of Cape Wrath. I have tried this before, but out of season, and found the roads closed. Perhaps someday I will try again, and if, in the process, we pass through Ayrshire I will give you a Call at Fairlie and we will turn down a pint or two at the pub. Thanks again for the letter. Sincerely, Jack Vance